New Art

 I've been busy drawing and painting...

In a few weeks I will be displaying some of my art work..


But.... I wanted to show some of it here first...




Here are 3 separate paintings of roosters on 4 ft. boards.
the knots in the wood determine what the bird will look like...

 this is a simple line drawing of a cow.. my very favorite subject... for now. Isn't she sweet?

and here is a painting of a Watusi... not a good photo but I like the painting... it's better in real life..


Art will be on display sometime in March or late February...

Thanks for looking.

Life Goes On

 Last week my Mom turned 85.

A few weeks beforehand I realized her actual birthday fell on a Friday and I got the idea to put together a party for her. My siblings voted for a surprise party.

So last Friday my niece and sister in law ( well they're divorced but we still think of her as our sister in law took my Mom out for a wonderful day of shopping, lunch, manicures, pedicures and hair styling..

They were supposed to be home by 5 pm. which would give the rest of us time to drive in, set up the house and put out food and decorations.

I got there first with my kids, and we got to work then my siblings their kids started to arrive.
Everyone worked to get things ready.

We kept our eyes on the clock and practiced different "Surprise!!!" scenarios trying to decide which would be less likely to cause Mom to have a heart attack.


 Finally we decided a simple waiting in the kitchen to find us would be safest.


  While we waited we decided to relax...
and have a little pre-party, party..

 we looked out the window ...




and waited..







Eventually they got there!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

I think she was happy, and surprised.


I stayed over with Juliette for 3 nights, which is the big reason for selling my cows, so I could spend time with my Mom,  it made sense..

 Then last night Juliette, Tommy and I went to the Opera.

Austin Lyric Opera has this wonderful program that allows students and teachers to attend dress rehearsals for free...

It's so great, the performances are always top rate, and we wouldn't have this opportunity without this
program.

Last year Juliette and I went to 3, performances, and Tommy went to one, he saw Don Carlos and liked it
but wasn't able to make any others.

So when I invited  him  to see Romeo and Juliet, he was actually quite willing to go, he even left basketball practice early to shower and get ready...

You know what? I think that's probably the exact reason they have this program in place...  expose the child to the arts and you just never know what will happen...

Discussion about the story, the training of the performers, the orchestra, the costumes, the set, the language so much comes from it.
Tommy even told me about Tupac ( a rapper) who said Romeo and Juliet is an ageless tale, and can be applied now a days to gang members, .. you know... the gangs are like the two families keeping hatred alive against the wishes of some of the members... members of one gang aren't allowed to be friends or lovers with members of rival gangs.. something to think about.
It was good..

Like the blog title says, life goes on, things are different but things are good....

Goodbye Girls

Last week was bitter sweet.

I sold my cows. It's sad because I miss them, it seems empty here, and I keep feeling like there's something I need to do, but I know it's just missing them.

But it's also good, because they went to a family with over a hundred acres outside of Fredricksburg and I know they will have access to lots of pasture,  I know they are happy... and they went together, that was non negotiable.

There have been many, many times when I felt it was unfair to them to not have pasture, I mean that's what cows are made to do, graze.... and I just don't have the room here for them..

I do believe they were happy here, but still... they are cows and they will be happy there too, they will adapt.

For myself, I needed freedom..

My mother is going to be 85 years old this January and I want to have the freedom to see her as much as I can... and the only way to get freedom was to rehome the girls.

I believe in the old days it was easier, because chances were your neighbors were in the same situation,
and were willing to help each other out, they knew how to care for each others animals...
Today it just isn't like that, it's nearly impossible to get away ...

So for now it will be empty, and I will remember the animals are better off..

I will always remember how special it was to have them, although it was hard work  I learned so much from them.. I can't even write this without tearing up...they helped me grow and appreciate things I really never thought about before...I honestly never really had thought about how much we humans rely on animals for our very lives..  they give so generously, they ask for so little in return.. and they are so gentle..

Maybe my path will come back to having cows again or some other dairy animal but for now I will take some time and just see where I go.

 I will enjoy my freedom spend time with my loved ones,  and see what awaits around the bend.

Update on the Law Suit

So I saw my Mom and sister for New Years Eve and they asked about our ongoing law suit...
and after explained the situation to them I decided to update you readers as well....

Here is the history in a nutshell.
Last February we were served with papers notifying us that our POA was suing us.
We responded that we wanted to work out a compromise.
We then were given a pathetic list of our POA's dream demands, including among other thing, we pay 4000.00 in attorney fees, a new survey (500.00), and pay 500.00 per month if we ever fell out of compliance with any rule again.
At this time a wonderful thing happened, Bill Davis, Lawyer fell from heaven and after reviewing our case
not only agreed to take the case but asked to take it....

Fast forward to now,
Our neighborhood did have a legal POA that was active in the 80s and up til 1994 when it was dissolved by the Secretary of State.
Under the law at that time the POA had 3 years in which to reinstate and they did not. Although they still carried on business during this time...( which was illegal)
Then is 2001 these jokers, in fact our neighbor, our president himself went and reincorporated another POA!! With a very similar name, in fact he only added an apostrophe to the last word, this enabled him to
use the same acronym as usual and none of the home owners were the wiser.
All on their own, with no homeowner votes or knowledge.
Their lawyer, John Lione of Austin is arguing that they simply reinstated the original POA...
Well, they didn't and they know it good and well and I believe Mr. Lione is milking the POA fund til it's dry...
his argument is flawed.... and hopefully he knows it or he really is a dud of an attorney...

So that is where we are.. we now have to pay to have our neighbor and president deposed, out of our own
pocket to try to get to the bottom of this can of worms.... 

You may wonder why we are doing all this, well it's because they are wrong, they are bullies and to be honest... criminals.... and they are going to be exposed....

We were given this job.. and were going to see it through.
I'll keep you posted

Homemade Pain Relief

 Yesterday, I smashed my thumb in the car door...all on my own.

I wish I could say some careless companion slammed the door on me,
but it wouldn't be true.

I was rushing.... my daughter had a piano receital, and we were running late. I dropped her off at the door, parked, got out and slammed my thumb in  the door and I had locked it as well!  I had  to stay calm
and hunt for the keys to first unlock the door to get my hand out.

Next problem was the blood and the receital... I tried to stay calm ( I think I mentioned this very crucial point)  and not get blood on anything, luckly I was wearing dark clothes.

Long story short... I made it, but oh, how it hurt!!!
I would have to use some very bad words to really get my point across. I do believe you can tell from the photo... then add your own ideas as to the scene....

Once home my son helped  me wrap my wound up
and my daughter  made dinner for me (very sweet kids) but everyonce in a while it hurt so much I thought I was going to black out....then I had an idea....

  A while back my husband had a toothache and until he could get to the dentist I put clove oil on a cotton ball for him to put on his gums... it numbs..
So... I got some almond oil, added some clove oil and swabbed my thumb with it... glory be to God!! It worked!!

No pain , the carrier oil, ( almond oil) protected  my skin in case the clove was too harsh.
I would recommend keeping Clove oil on hand in your home first aid kit. You can use any other oil, (olive, grapeseed etc.) as a carrier oil.

Hopefully you'll never need to use it, but you'll be glad to have it if you do!

My New Flock of Chickens

 I ordered 15 baby chicks in October.

It used to be when my kids were little we would get many kinds of chicks when we ordered them or went to the feed store. So we had all different kinds of chickens, which was really pretty and an excellent way to learn the behavior of many different kinds of
chickens.

The down side to this mixed flock way or doing things was that we never knew how old a bird was...
I mean we were always adding more and were never quite sure how old one each hen was, which is something you really need to know if they aren't exactly pets.... if you know what I'm getting at...

You see at some point we will eat the older hens, of course they will have had a nice long life, running free and just being chickens, but we don't have the room for girls who are too old to lay eggs..

So I got 15 Buff Orpingtons, and you always get one "surprise" chick. This time is was a Turken....
a bad thing to be in the winter, it seems to me.

This is my little flock now, at around 2 months, aren't they nice? They're just about old enough for me to let them run loose during the day with out fear of them being attacked by the older hens...

And around April I'll have more than enough eggs!

Busy Days

 Mattie's pretty far into her lactation cycle.
One of the nice things about that is milking once a day.

I still get plenty of milk ( around 2 to 2.5 gallons) each milking but I can choose when to milk according to my schedule.

While it's really nice to be able to milk at 9 or 10 in the morning and have a relaxing start to the day, sometimes a gal has to get moving early to fit everything in!


 And as it is, this is a really, really busy time for me..
In fact I've been pulling the early "farmer" hours.

Lucky thing Mattie likes the early pre dawn milk time....
She actually seems to prefer it... she gets her work done early and has the rest of the day to do as she pleases!

The only thing I've noticed is that she seems to like me to guide her with a flashlight...

Thought you would enjoy seeing her do her thing..

And please check out the Products for Sale tab at the top of the home page to see what I have up! 

Feedback is welcome and encouraged...